Startups taking a tech-based approach to healthcare have been a magnet for VC investment dollars, and the trend shows no sign of slowing down. Around the world, VCs poured $3.5 billion into about 371 different digital health deals and financings in the second quarter of this year, according to CB Insights.

Nine VC firms were especially active in the space, according to a recent CB Insights report focused on the second quarter of 2019. CB Insights ranked the VCs based on the number of unique digital health company investments they had made, but the the report doesn't disclose those figures.

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These VCs have invested in such companies as Alma Health, which makes coworking spaces and tech for therapists, the digital therapeutics startup Omada, and health data platform LunaDNA.

At a time when iPhones are omnipresent and AI is taking over the world, healthcare is a relative latecomer to the potential of technology. The highly-regulated industry moves slowly, and isn't exactly known for its tech-savviness, but a new wave of startups is betting it can change that.

In an indication of how competitive the field has become, there's a two-way tie for the #1 slot on the CB Insights ranking. After that, there are a stunning seven VCs ranked as the #2 most active digital health firms.

#2. Khosla Ventures

a katz/Shutterstock

Menlo Park, California-based Khosla Ventures invests across a variety of industries, including healthcare, with the internet as one of its focuses. It's ranked as the #2 most active digital health VC along with six others.

#2. Illumina Ventures

The LunaDNA team. Illumina Ventures has invented in the startup.
Courtesy LunaDNA

Founded by the genome-sequencing giant Illumina in 2016, Foster City, California-based Illumina Ventures was built with the mission of "unlocking the power of the genome."

The firm aims to invest in life science tools, clinical diagnostics and therapeutics, according to PitchBook. Illumina Ventures is one of seven total companies ranked as the #2 most active digital health VCs.

#2. F-Prime Capital

F-Prime has invested in the animal DNA testing company Embark.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images

The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based F-Prime Capital invests in healthcare subsectors like biopharma and medical technology, as well as enterprise information technology and fintech, according to PitchBook.

Healthcare is "the largest sector of our economy and arguably the least efficient in many ways," Carl Byers, a partner at F-Prime, told Business Insider.

"That leads to huge opportunities to improve care while reducing cost. And people who create the technology and services in the middle can earn and should earn in terms of making that happen," he said. "So it's just a great opportunity for that reason."

#2. Echo Health Ventures

The Seattle, Washington-based Echo Health Ventures was founded in 2016 and is a collaboration between nonprofit healthcare company Cambia Health Solutions and healthcare VC Mosaic Health Solutions.

Rob Coppedge, CEO of Echo Health Ventures, who's been looking at investments in healthcare services and health technology since the 1990s, says that the industries are at something of an inflection point today.

"And I feel like we're finally at a point where we can make good on some promises we've been talking about as a system, as an industry, for 20-something years," he told Business Insider.

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